Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! The grave could not hold Him. Put the Lamb in a Full Nelson. Death devoured Paschal Lamb Jesus. Gobbled Him up! Sunk its teeth in deep. But Death choked on the Lamb. The Passover flesh of Jesus was too toxic for Death. Death had to cough up Jesus from the grave! Death has forever lost its grip on Jesus. And on you! For Jesus died and rose for you! He did it all for you! For your salvation! His victory over Death is your victory over death.

Passover Lamb Jesus has been sacrificed. His Body roasted on the altar of the Cross in the red hot wrath of God against all sin. His Passover Lamb Blood shed.

So what? Here’s the so what. Sin no longer condemns you. It’s power has been spent on Passover Lamb Jesus. His resurrection is the loud proclamation that His victory over sin is done. Salvation for you has been achieved. The power of death has been broken. All that given to Mark today in Holy Baptism! At the font Mark was buried with Christ through baptism into Christ’s Good Friday death, so that just as Jesus was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, Mark, Teri and all of us who are baptized may live a new life!

And now the feast! The Passover Lamb’s Body and Blood. For you to eat and drink. For your joy. For your forgiveness. The medicine of immortality.

(We sing stanzas 1-2.)

The Lord Jesus has offered His Body and Blood into death as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Today the Passover Lamb feeds us from His Good Friday sacrifice. Consequently, the angel of death passes over you. Death must put away his sword. For you are covered in the Blood of the Lamb. Jesus bloodies not doorposts or doorframes but your bodies. “Drink of it all of you. This cup is the new testament in my blood,” the Risen Lamb says. And now the Lamb leads us, His new Israel, as the Good Shepherd from Satan’s Egyptian captivity of death through the Red Sea of our Baptisms and through the wilderness of this world to the Promised Land of heaven. Along the way His Supper is the manna from heaven from which we the baptized may eat and not die. He provides.

(We sing stanzas 3-4.)

Jesus has conquered death and hell. For you. Now you have life. Life in His Name. The grave could not hold Jesus. Nor will it hold you. Jesus is the first fruits. Your bodies will be raised on the Last Day. Imperishable. In power raised a spiritual body, that is, a Holy Spirit filled body raised to perfection, without sin, the way God created in the beginning.

Do not be afraid. Jesus is risen! Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. All sin is forgiven. Everything has changed. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old has passed away. Paradise is now open. “Listen,” Paul says, “I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality,” (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).

As a guarantee of the resurrection of your body from the grave and your body’s immortality, the Lord Jesus gives you His death defeating and hell vanquishing Body and Blood in the Sacrament. That’s His promise. He will not abandon you in the grave and He refuses to send you to hell. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day,” (John 6:54). The Lord’s Supper is the medicine of immortality, the antidote that we should not die, but live forever in Jesus Christ. What joy!

(We sing stanzas 5-6.)

Easter triumph! Easter joy! Why? Because Lamb of God Jesus is risen! And He’s left all your sins in the black hole of His death and grave. Your sins are forgiven. All of them. Jesus left none out of His dying. When it comes to forgiving sin Jesus doesn’t discriminate. His death is big enough for them all. And where there is forgiveness of sins there is life and salvation.

So now in this life the Lord Jesus has good use for you. Set free from your curved in on yourself sin by Passover Lamb Jesus, you are free to live for others. To be content to be His creatures that He created and redeemed in Christ. You are His hands and His mouth to be His instruments of love to those in need.

Who needs your love? Look around you. Loads of folks. Your spouse. Your children. Your grandchildren. Your next door neighbor. Your fellow church members. Maybe it’s a cup of cold water or a loaf of freshly baked bread. Maybe it’s a new pair of tennis shoes or Levis. Perhaps it’s a kiss goodnight with the words, “I love you.” Paying the bills. Cooking supper. Doing the laundry. Doing your homework. Coming to church on a regular basis to edify your fellow members. Listening to the sermon. Singing the hymns. Praying for the authorities, the poor, the sick, those serving in the military, ect.

Such love, not for yourself, but for others flows from the love of Christ given to you at the altar in the Sacrament. And what a love it is: His Body given for you; His Blood shed for you. By that Calvary death we live. By faith in Christ. In love for those in need.